The closest I can come to figuring out how this fight came about:
...is that Alicia Masters was doing some banking business (probably making a withdrawal in order to employ more men to cart in all that stone she sculpts with) at the same time the Sandman was pulling a heist. We never do end up seeing Alicia, which means the FF were (a) in the general vicinity, and/or (b) received a call for help from Alicia via her special transceiver when she heard the Sandman threatening everyone. More likely, though, we can blame (c) writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez for never comparing notes on the matter.
But whatever happened, the end result is possibly the shortest FF/Sandman fight ever (I don't count the fight when the Sandman escaped from prison, since it didn't involve a full FF complement):
Johnny. Dude. No. If you were slugged with the same impact as being hit by a steamroller, especially a granite steamroller, you'd be DEAD. Yet you're still talking--heck, you're still conscious. You even shattered the Sandman's punch on impact. You couldn't do that even if the Sandman's sledge hammer punch had been just solidified sand--after all, whether or not you're generating flame, you're Johnny Storm, plain human being. Do you think you've been taking Thing pills?
But again, this is fated to be a really short fight, so let's wrap it up:
Reed, by the way, is talking off-panel to his son, Franklin, who couldn't resist scoping out this fight like any curious youngster. Hanging with the FF has Xbox beat by a mile. We knew it couldn't possibly have been Alicia. Alicia probably hasn't said "Wow!" since we've known her, come to think of it. If you'd spent your career chipping away at rock, you'd probably need to loosen up, too.
So the FF just sentenced Sandman to a living death. Or he could end up like a Spectre opponent smashed to pieces. How did he come back?
ReplyDeleteColin, I may be wrong, but I had the impression that this little tussle took place under the Marvel radar--just a quick over-and-done-with fight that had nothing to do with the annual's main story with the Salem Seven. I'd hazard a guess that it may not have even occurred to the next writer who would handle the Sandman.
ReplyDeletePhil,
ReplyDeleteIt had already been established that all this sort of thing would do is place him into a temporary hibernation, from which he would inevitably recover someday none the worse for wear.
Over time, Sandman has been mixed with concrete and turned into a statue (during which he went into hibernation rather than suffer living death), washed down a drain, and spread across an entire beach.
Eventually, he learned how to turn parts of himself into glass, the shattering of which never caused him any harm.